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Two finance firms operated by a former 1980s high-flyer turned loan shark who was jailed for fraud after the Black Monday crash have appealed a $720,000 fine for "cynical and deliberate" repossession tactics which stripped homes almost bare.

From 2009 to 2014, Budget Loans misrepresented its right to repossess goods and recover interest and costs from borrowers. It also misrepresented amounts borrowers were required to pay under attachment orders and made misrepresentations about the benefits of refinancing existing loans.

Budget Loans further purchased the distressed loan books of Western Bay Finance and National Finance in 2004.

Commerce Commission general counsel Mary-Anne Borrowdale said earlier in a statement Budget Loans had obtained court judgments against some borrowers but demanded more from borrowers than the courts had awarded.

"It knowingly engaged in illegal repossessions of essential items from people that it knew were already living in hardship. The financial and emotional distress caused by this conduct to borrowers and their families should not be underestimated."

In some cases Budget Loans stripped houses almost bare, the Commerce Commission said. In other cases, it repossessed items that it should have known were of low value, and dumped them.

"One borrower declared herself bankrupt when told her loan had ballooned from about $9,000 to $57,000. In fact she had less than $2,500 to pay at that time," Borrowdale said.

Budget Loans was earlier convicted on 34 charges under the Fair Trading Act in 2010 and fined $30,750. It undertook to return $500,000 in overcharged interest and fees to borrowers.